


Cicero

by AshiraSiobhan



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cops, Drugs/Alchohol, Gen, Just a really screwed up peice, Major character death - Freeform, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-14
Updated: 2012-10-14
Packaged: 2017-11-16 07:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/537014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshiraSiobhan/pseuds/AshiraSiobhan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you can't let go of the past, it will eat away at you, until all that's left is an empty corpse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cicero

The seventh day after it happened, they were at a funeral.  Both were great friends of the deceased.  They had been there and felt responsible.  Dinah thought if she had pushed him out of the way of the bullet just a little earlier, he’d be next to her.  Kendra thought that if she had jumped the guy a little earlier, he’d be next to her.  As they laid him in the ground, Dinah thought it should be her.  Kendra was different though.  She knew it was inevitable; they were cops.  She was just glad that Dinah hadn’t gone with Tony.  Of her best friends, she still had one…

Dinah didn’t cry, but her gaze was focused so intently on the coffin, as if _she_ was in it.  She began to retreat into herself.  She doesn’t let herself mourn.  Here the two women differed again.  Kendra wept frantically, uncontrollably, but not for Tony.  She wept for his family, Dinah, herself...and she let it all go…she emptied herself of the tears…and as the preacher said farewell to Tony, she did as well.

******************************************************

            On the anniversary of his death, both women were at his headstone, one he was lucky to have so early.  The epitaph read:  _“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”_   Dinah just stood staring vacantly, while Kendra approached.  They exchanged the typical “How are you’s?” 

            Dinah responded, “Fine.”

            But it was obviously a lie.  The web of wrinkles on her face had grown; she stooped with the greatest weight upon her back; if you looked closely, you could almost see Tony’s ghost over her shoulder. 

            “I haven’t seen you around the precinct.  Where have you been?”  Kendra inquired.

            “I quit,” Dinah gritted out.

            “Well, you’re missed.”

            “So is he,” she motions at the headstone.

            “Yeah…It’s not your fault, you know…”

            They both became silent, but Kendra saw the disagreement in Dinah’s eyes.  Kendra leaned in for a hug, but Dinah moved out of reach.  They exchanged the requisite “Good to see you’s” and “we should do this again’s,” and parted ways.  As Dinah spun on heel and drifted off, Kendra smelled the booze, but by the time she looked up, Dinah had disappeared.

******************************************************

            The call came early in the morning.  Kendra, the only detective at the precinct (she’d been promoted a few months back), got into the car and drove down.  The sight that greeted her was one she never wanted to see, but had been dreading since the graveyard.  An emaciated, stark-white, scarred Dinah amid the trash with a syringe hanging from her arm.  The initial report called it an OD, open and shut.  As her best friend was packaged up, Kendra looked on silently.  She made sure everything was done right, the chain of evidence respected. 

She called the precinct but was told to go home.  She couldn’t tell how long it took her to get to her apartment.  After going through her nightly ritual, she collapsed on her bed.  Now, she let the floodgates open.  As she bawled, she said goodbye.  By the time she had finished crying, it was almost six.  She slipped in for the night, but not before she realized, _Dinah is the first person I’ve lost since Tony_.

**Author's Note:**

> The quote is a quote from Cicero, hence the title.


End file.
